F1 driver Pierre Gasly has said he feared for his life at the start of the Japanese Grand Prix, after he narrowly avoided crashing into a crane on the same race track where countryman Jules Bianchi was killed in a similar incident.

The crane was deployed when cars began sliding off course at the start of Sunday's rain-soaked race, where Max Verstappen won his second straight world title, and it was on the Suzuka Circuit to collect Carlos Sainz Jr's car which had gone off course in the wet conditions.

Although other drivers passed by the crane at slow speed, Gasly had started the race from the pit lane and was rushing to catch the pack in poor visibility when he came upon the safety crew.

He sped past the crane and a safety worker, who was standing on the track, with the recovery vehicle difficult to see even in slow-motion replays.

Motorsport governing body the FIA penalised Gasly after the race for not slowing under red flag conditions, but the Frenchman was furious.

"What is this tractor on track?" Gasly screamed on his team radio.

In 2014, Jules Bianchi lost control of his car in wet conditions on the same track and collided with a recovery vehicle.

He remained comatose with a head injury for nine months before he died aged 25, becoming the first F1 driver to die from an on-track incident since Ayrton Senna's fatal accident in 1994.